Prior to arriving at Huntington, Dennes worked at USAA for 10 years spearheading several mobile and digital initiatives. Dennes will head the new Business Development and Digital Transformation division of BBVA Compass, the bank said. BBVA also announced the hiring of Mark Jamison, previously Chief Digital Officer at Capital One Bank, as the Director of Customer Experience and Business Intelligence.

BBVA Compass has spent the past several months transforming its digital channel operations and placing a priority on innovation. In February, it acquired digital banking start-up Simple for $117 million.

"We are taking decisive steps in the group's transformation in order to create the best possible experience for current and future customers," said Carlos Torres Vila, BBVA's head of digital banking, in a statement. "The goal is for BBVA to be the best bank of the digital age,"

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio

I think a lot of bigger banks are looking at this sort of model but BBVA deserves credit for making the move. I'm sure it will pay dividends in terms of superior digital products and services that will help it comepte with both banks and nonbanks alike.

News like this, combined with the recent analytics appointments in insurance, makes me think more financial services companies are waking up and restructuring their organizations to better embrace digital.

This is a very interesting development -- not just the appointments themselves, but the bank's decision to create a dedicated digital banking division. BBVA Compass is generally considered one of the more advanced institutions in terms of multi-channel, mobile, customer experience, etc.So this move could be considered a wake-up call to the industry that this bank intends to really up its game. It also possibly could reflect a determinationfrom BBVA that they are threatened by nontraditional digital competitors and really have to accelerate digital strategy.